Posted on 08/09/2022 9:13:19 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The “Inflation Reduction Act,” which as we’ve pointed out is unlikely to tame inflation, contains $80 billion in funding for the Internal Revenue Service to hire a staggering 87,000 new agents to slog through the financial affairs of Americans. The allocation is a 600 percent increase over the agency’s 2021 budget of $12.6 billion.
The bill cleared the Senate Sunday and now heads to the House, where it’s expected to pass. It would more than double the agency’s current staffing, bringing it up eventually to 165,000 people. That’s more than the population of Tempe, Arizona.
The Washington Free Beacon reports that the new hires will make the IRS workforce larger than the combined number of employees of the Pentagon, State Department, FBI, and Border Patrol. They write:
That [the Inflation Reduction Act] would make the IRS one of the largest federal agencies. The Pentagon houses roughly 27,000 employees, according to the Defense Department, while a human resources fact sheet says the State Department employs just over 77,243 staff. The FBI employs approximately 35,000 people, according to the agency’s website, and Customs and Border Protection says it employs 19,536 Border Patrol agents.
Eighty-seven thousand—in addition to the 78,000 already employed by the agency—is a truly staggering number. People often have criticized the draconian policies of this administration—especially with the FBI’s raid of Mar-a-Lago in the news—but siccing that many new agents on our own people takes it to a whole new level. Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz apparently agrees:
1/x The FBI raiding Donald Trump is unprecedented.
It is corrupt & an abuse of power.
What Nixon tried to do, Biden has now implemented: The Biden Admin has fully weaponized DOJ & FBI to target their political enemies.
And with 87K new IRS agents, they’re coming for YOU too.
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) August 9, 2022
RedState’s Nick Arama wrote the following during Sunday’s “Vote-A-Rama” leading up to the passage of this behemoth bill in the Senate:
But as Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) explained, perhaps few things in the bill are as bad as the lie the Democrats are trying to sell about the hiring of 87,000 more IRS agents, acting as though it’s only going to go after “billionaires” to make them pay their fair share. We should be scaling back the IRS–not building it up. If we were spending money on anything, it should be border agents.
Arama is right, it won’t just be billionaires and corporations that will be targeted. The Free Beacon explains:
The majority of new revenue from IRS audits and scrutiny will come from those making less than $200,000 a year, according to a study from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. The committee found that just 4 to 9 percent of money raised will come from those making more than $500,000, contrary to Democrats’ claims that new IRS agents are necessary to target millionaires and billionaires who hide income.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham put it in to perspective at a press conference Tuesday:
If you think the federal government is out of control now, God help us when you get 87,000 new IRS agents who are looking under every rock and stone to get money out of your pocket.
My colleague Sister Toldjah wrote Monday about Democrats laughably claiming that audits are no big deal. Ask anyone who’s ever been audited, and they will tell you it’s hell even if the Feds eventually find you did nothing wrong. “Our biggest worry in this is that the burden for these audits will land on Walmart shoppers,” Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said Tuesday on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
In a recent letter to the Senate, IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig claimed the new resources are “absolutely not about increasing audit scrutiny on small businesses or middle-income Americans.” I trust him, don’t you? The IRS would never do anything wrong, would they? Well, except for maybe targeting conservative groups as they did under Obama.
More and more bad news is sure to come out as this bill gets continued scrutiny. This insanely massive explosion of the IRS workforce, though, is already bad enough.
We need to resist. All IRS employees need to be persona en grata. Make them outcasts from society. Exclude them from everything possible and make their lives miserable. They are the enemy to a free America. They have been and will continue to be weaponized.
Well, Big Brother needs his army to terrorize prols into obedience and submission.
This ticks me off 96 different ways. I hate DemoNazis.
There was a meme with Trump in it that said, “They aren’t after me, they are after you. I’m just in the way.”
It’s more true now than ever.
Soetero’s citizen army
You know they need them when they Tax guns and Ammo
That’s their Plan !
Truer every day. My congressman, Scott Perry, had his cell phone seized by the FBI today. He said it included correspondence with constituents. I email him last night about the FBI raid on Trump. I called for the shuttering of the FBI in that email. I assume Perry agrees fully with me after today. But it does make me think twice about exercising my 1A rights. That hits home. But I refused to be silenced. They will have to kill me to shut me up.
They’re going to have to pay through the nose to get agents. I’ve never met one or anybody who wanted to be one.
I wonder how many of that 87,000 will be AA hires who can’t even add thanks to our wonderful education system. How will they get any minority hires since math is now considered racist?
Don’t cooperate with them.
If you serve on a jury where some poor innocent citizen is on trial for tax evasion, give them the benefit of the doubt and engage in jury nullification.
I saw a photo of a stadium that held 88,000.
The meme said to think about how many new IRS agents this is.
There will not be any audit of any democrat politician or supporter.
How many think the 87,000 new IRS agents are for auditing Trump supporters? Remember the Tea Party and True the Vote dealing with the IRS? Just asking for a friend......
I wonder what is going to be the spark to ignite the powder keg?
This is a GDP killer.
Many are finally returning to work only to be harassed for minor BS.
This breaks my heart.
I know it what it means to dance with the IRS. And it’s not the end of the world. But it’s important to realize there’s a knife against your back making sure you keep time.
Do not ignore the notices. And the notices will arrive via US mail.
If you’re not in the habit of hiding incoming, no worries.
The average 1040 employee has nothing to worry about. The employer ensures your taxes are paid regularly. In terms of scrutiny, the employer’s payroll gets the greatest amount of attention from both the fed and state on a weekly/monthly basis. You’re golden. Breathe freely.
I’m guessing the focus will likely be on Sched-Cs & pass-throughs — DBAs, S-Corps, and the LLs — Small Business. Each of these cases are likely complex requiring a fair amount of time to analyze.
A Small Business owner knows the years it takes to get a basic understanding to the tax codes. New IRS agents will need guidance regarding one’s P&L and Balance statements. Cooperate and help/mentor — you may be inspiring a future business owner. And that reminds me... I dealt with an IRS agent that once had a business — all things considered, it was a positive experience.
Final word regarding the process... the agents are generally polite and empathetic. And they have a fair amount of latitude to help fix the oversights via reasonable payment plans. And remember, the agent is likely an individual hoping to pay the bills just like the rest of us. No need to be confrontational.
Bingo you “win the internet”. As The Z-man would say, it turns out qualified IRS agents aren’t exactly crossing the Rio Grande these days.
Now is the time to advocate for abolishing the income tax. Flat or NRST would reduce the IRS to a skeleton crew.
Third world country corrupt dictatorship style raid, on President Trump’s home, and now this massive increase in IRSS agents with guns(?)..
... Nothing to see here..
Move along 🙄
Really, you don't need to do math. It's like bookkeepers and accounting now, it's all software related. They just plug whatever numbers the computer tells them to. Most returns are done electronically now, and the rest are scanned and uploaded.The software then does its thing, and if there are “flags” the IRS agent will be notified to look closer. Letters are generated and sent, then the audits are done. Even letters and audits are automatically generated in most cases. If a taxpayer “owes” money or if the IRS needs clarification on entries, letters are sent. The letters contain threats and I don't know if you have ever gotten a letter from the IRS, it's deeply unsettling and most cases are handled through the mail without ever seeing an agent, even for an audit. But most of what they plan on hiring now, is a function any basic high school millennial who owns a computer can do. True, it will take awhile to fill these positions and perhaps train, but they aren't looking for math geniuses here.
The smart people are saved for the forensic accounting.
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